Say What?
by Rakusa
Summary: Usagi went away to South America for a semester abroad, and she comes back with a lot of changes. Discontinued indefinitely, but might be continued in the future.
1. Chapter 1

Say What?

June 11, 2008

Sum: Usagi went away to South America for a semester abroad, and she comes back with a lot of changes.

AN: In this story her parents live in North America… and please give it a chance, it's not quite as cliché as those Serena we hate you, leave, stories where she's needed and comes back.

Chapter One

"I can't believe you're really leaving me." A blond haired beauty told the other blond in a British accent in a strange swell of clipped and held notes and vowels.

"Hey, Minako, back off, she's not your girlfriend." A guy with the roguishly handsome features only a mixed breed could have, his heritage came from partially Japan and partially south and south-eastern Europe. Yet he didn't know who his parents were or where they came from. Usagi only knew because his features couldn't be distinctly Asian alone. She too was a child from parents who were partially Japanese, yet if looked incredibly hard, you could see slight Asian features and only the last name still held any true calling. Yet her parents were mean and decided to call her Tsukino Usagi in true Japanese way and send her to live with her extended family since she was fourteen.

"I'm sorry." She told her boyfriend of four and a half years. It was spring semester in a week and she was looking forward to it despite knowing she would be sad and missing her friends here. "But I promised Naru long ago, that we'd go study abroad for spring semester Junior year since we were fourteen. It's now time."

She stood up on her tip-toes and kissed Mamoru deeply before she turned and hugged all of her friends. They took pictures of her and all of her stuff and with Naru as well. Naru was saying her own goodbyes and then came over as her family left. Usagi hugged her family as well before they had to go back to work and Mamoru pulled her into a bone crushing hug before kissing her goodbye again.

"I expect a letter from you every week." He told her and the girls all nodded.

"I'll try. I'm not sure how good the postal service is over there."

"The phone service is really bad and except at resorts the internet is not a likely bet either." Naru told them. They had picked a small town area because they wanted to learn the language and still be close to the bigger city to see the real life in the metropolitan area and experience the culture of both.

Mamoru stole one last kiss. "Be good, and don't find a hot boyfriend while you're away." He told her sternly.

"Don't drink too much." Makoto winked and hugged Usagi goodbye again and hugged Naru as well. "Watch out for each other. And the same goes for you, be careful." She told Naru with a pat on the back that Naru swore would leave a bruise.

They got one last picture of all of them, smiling happily with the two travel girls in the center.

"Please come back in one piece and make sure you come back when you are supposed to, and not any later because some one told you there is this great new thing you need to try and end up killing yourself doing it."

"Yes Rei, jeez you take out all the fun in studying abroad." Usagi teased.

"We should get going." Naru gently reminded her best friend. There was one more round of hugs before the red-head and the blond girls headed to security and headed out of sight.

Naru and Usagi smiled at each other as they fastened their seatbelt and watched the world they knew disappear as soon they would land in an area they knew next to nothing about. It was a mixture of excitement and trepidation.


	2. Chapter 2

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Chapter Two

Mamoru paced the baggage claim's small space one more time, waiting for his girlfriend and her friend to come down to pick up their bags. They didn't know that a few of the girls and he were there to greet them. They had originally arranged for Naru's parents to pick them up and then drop Usagi off at her home here before she would go to bed and go to sleep until the next morning as the time schedule was completely off from what they were used to.

True to Naru's word, the only real source of information they got between each other were letters. And every week on Tuesday he would receive a letter from his one, and true love. Without fail he received them, except for one week, it went amiss and he never saw one letter addressed to him or any of the girls. They had all been through some pretty tough stuff over the years with their history and all, but it had worried him, the next letter he received from her had arrived the following week on Wednesday.

It had started out forced and a little melancholy but as the writer struggled with telling him something or not, the entire tone changed and it was the same happy wonderment that had been in all of Usagi's other letters, except for the fact that this one seemed a little less genuine, and a little more forced. The following letter had returned to its normal pacing and excitement yet it nagged at Mamoru that there was something that wasn't quite right in Usagi's world and he hoped she hadn't found a new love and only wrote to him to spare his feelings and would drop the bomb on him when she walked over to collect her back with a new hot stud on her arm.

Or if there was no new love, then maybe she had fallen out of love with him. Either way he feared for the worst, all scenarios had his head filled with negativity and all ended with her leaving him.

They waited and waited, and yet they didn't see any sign of the blond bomb-shell that was his love. People started clearing out of the area and he spotted a strange girl sitting by herself with a load of luggage and scanning the crowds. Her eyes widened as she spotted him and all the girls that were with him.

She straightened up and then looked pitifully down at the luggage with her, knowing there was no way to bring it all with her in one go.

Mamoru saw her reaction and wondered if she recognized him from somewhere. He gave up momentarily on his girlfriend; she probably got stuck at the airport unable to board until the next flight. She'd call when she got in to her aunt and uncle to explain and then they'd call him and they'd all return again for her.

He walked over to the girl with brunette hair and a darker skin tone than any he'd seen on Usagi's pale limbs and stopped next to her.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help but notice your reaction when we locked eyes, do you know me from somewhere?"

"Nice adaptation of the saying, isn't it normally 'don't I know you from somewhere'? Isn't that the normal pick-up line?" A stern voice said from his shoulder and he turned his head and registered Naru's appearance with his memory of her.

Excited he pulled her into a hug. "I've missed you, it's good to see your face. Where's Usako?" He asked, looking above her head to see if the blond goddess was behind her.

"Right there, you idiot." But Naru was laughing and hugging him back, it was good to see an old face.

Mamoru turned back to the girl sitting with the bags and she smiled self-consciously at him and stood up. He had thought this girl had been slouching but as she stood he noticed that there were more changes to her appearance than just her suntan and hair color. She seemed to have lost weight at the same time gained some around her middle. On closer inspection there was a slight bump where her flat stomach used to be.

"No." His voice was a harsh gaggle as he managed to get the word out. "No." He repeated hoarsely as he realized exactly what that meant and he took an unconscious step back as she approached him, content to leave the stuff behind her now that Naru was there as well.

She stopped short, she hadn't been about to hug him, just to explain. She had expected a negative reaction, but she hadn't counted on him doing this, being afraid of her, being disgusted by her.

The girls had all bounded over after they realized that Mamoru was talking to Naru and another girl.

They all wanted in on the information, and where was Usagi?

"Naru!" They all greeted and threw their arms around her in a hug before as well repeating Mamoru's earlier question. Save for Makoto though as she spotted the other girl and the addition to her waist. Makoto looked up into those unmistakable blue eyes filled with so much pain, pain not only having to do with how Mamoru was behaving.

Makoto shoved Mamoru to the side and swept Usagi into a hug. She didn't care about anything except the fact that her best friend was back after the longest time away since they met. They had been through so much and the fact that she was like she was, meant nothing to Makoto, they'd get through it, they had gone through so much worse, they had all done so much worse.

Usagi's greatest surprise and downfall had been in their past life, when she married Endymion, and if Makoto could past that, nothing would ruin their friendship.

The other girls stopped to stare as Makoto pushed Mamoru out of the way and embraced the girl in a bone-crunching hug. Naru pointed towards the pair and mouthed 'Usagi'.

Naru stood off to the side as the girls all raced forward and all of them either ignored the fact that Usagi wasn't the same as she left or were blind to it. Mamoru still stood there shell-shocked, but Naru let him sort through it as well, a lot would be told in how he handled this. Naru watched this all happen, four months ago, she'd have been jealous that she wasn't getting Usagi's attention, but a few months ago, something happened that had made their friendship even stronger and Naru lost her jealousness and was glad now Usagi had others to support her as well, as she needed it.

Mamoru shook his head and barged his way through the girls, he'd find out later what happened and what this all meant, but for now, he was just glad she was home, and in a second, in his arms. He kissed her and she pushed him away.

Naru winced and pulled Usagi off to the side and whispered in her ear and Usagi heaved for breath. Naru held up a finger as the entire group came towards them, wanting to know what was wrong.

Makoto noticed that none of the girls noticed that Usagi was pregnant. It was the slightest of bumps, but the shirt she was wearing did not all that much to hide it, and it wasn't all that noticeable if she hadn't lost so much weight or she wasn't so small to begin with. Makoto didn't blame them for not noticing. Makoto probably wouldn't have paid that close attention to detail of her friend's body to notice it either, but she had spent a summer volunteering in the prenatal ward at the hospital and had to quit because it made her so sad to have lost her own family and see how happy everyone else was. But that experience had taught her how to see when a person was pregnant or had an unfortunate occurrence of being heavy in the center or heaven forbid, so starved that the stomach bloated from acids.

Usagi calmed down enough that she smiled at them and apologized.

Makoto hung back and Mamoru chose to as well, this time in a different sort of shock and surprise. She was partially surprised that Mamoru had noticed it as well, but then again he probably knew ever dip and contour of her body without even looking at her so would know instantly if she was suddenly different. She put her hand on his shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about it, give it time, and everything will be all right."

"And give her space." He drolly finished.

"But not too much, a foot aught to be good enough." Makoto winked at him and he smiled ruefully back.

Naru's hand lingered in Usagi's before slowly pulling herself away and walking over to the two much taller people. "Mamoru, would you mind helping me bring out the bags to the car?" She asked politely and smiled at Makoto. "Just the two of us? I figured you'd be driving us home when you guys were the welcome home cavalry, and our families will be waiting for us."

"Of course." Mamoru slung up a few bags and let Naru carry the ones that wouldn't weigh on her shoulders and weren't too heavy to pull or keep up with his long strides.


End file.
